obamacare

Ryan greets Obama as he arrives to deliver his final State of the Union address while Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. looks on. It was one of Ryan's few smiles of the evening. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

President Barack Obama repeatedly had to raise his voice to be heard over cheering Democratic lawmakers during his State of the Union address on Jan. 12. But Speaker Paul D. Ryan sat motionless, his face frozen in a polite — but unimpressed — expression.

Obama used part of his likely final address to a joint session of Congress to extol policy whims long pushed by Democrats like pre-kindergarten “for all” children and a government-led effort to “to make college affordable for every American.” He also called it a “basic fact” that the U.S. “has the strongest, most durable economy in the world,” saying the country is “in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history.”

With little public fanfare, President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed a Republican-crafted measure designed to repeal his signature health care overhaul. But Republican leaders are signaling their repeal push is far from over.

In a statement, Obama said the health care overhaul "is working," slamming the bill because it would "reverse the significant progress we have made in improving health care in America." "The Affordable Care Act includes a set of fairer rules and stronger consumer protections that have made health care coverage more affordable, more attainable, and more patient centered," Obama added.

Wednesday's House vote sets up a veto decision for Obama. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Congressional Republicans finally won a major battle in their fight against President Barack Obama’s health care law, but he is poised to win the war with the stroke of a pen.

The House on Wednesday, in a vote that fell strictly along party lines, for the first time sent Obama a measure that would repeal his 2010 Affordable Care Act. The outcome is a major victory for Republicans because it will allow them to tout it to anti-Obama GOP donors and voters.

During his year-end news conference, President Barack Obama took the kinds of partisan shots that for years have so frustrated congressional Republicans. But he also flashed the pragmatic streak that helped him notch several legislative victories in 2015.

On one hand, Obama praised Republicans for crafting several high-profile bills that met his muster. But on the other, he clubbed the GOP for bucking the rest of the world for its rejection of the very concept of climate change. The president and Capitol Hill Republicans have had a rocky relationship since even before he took office in January 2009, and the bad blood has made Washington a symbol of legislative dysfunction ever since. But the ill will seemed to dissipate a bit this year, as he signed into law sweeping bills on education, highways, the Export-Import Bank, and a massive spending bill that raises defense and domestic budget caps and also averts a government shutdown.

President Barack Obama has acknowledged enjoying cigarettes at the White House, but says he stopped lighting up there in 2010.

The admission came during a wide-ranging interview with GQ magazine conducted by former ESPN personality and writer Bill Simmons, who asked the president to reveal the number of smokes he’s had at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “Zero in the last five years,” Obama said.

Police remove protesters from the White House fence during a demonstration against the war in Afghanistan and torture in 2009. (CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The White House is firing back at congressional Republicans who are threatening to sue should President Barack Obama use his executive authority to close the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, terrorist detention center.

As the White House prepares to send Congress a plan to shutter the facility perhaps as soon as Friday, congressional leaders have dubbed it dead on arrival. The Obama administration continued Thursday refusing to rule out another option: Using an executive action to close the prison, citing the president’s war powers under Article II of the Constitution. Asked about Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain’s declaration Wednesday that such a move would be “unconstitutional,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest grinned and replied, “Gives you a sense of what we’re up against — even our friends on this issue are threatening lawsuits.”

Shifting demographics and Republican turnout fueled another victorious election night for Republican candidates, the White House contends, not the president or his health care law.

The morning after a Republican won the Kentucky governor's race and a year after another GOP success in the midterms, reporters pushed Press Secretary Josh Earnest Wednesday on whether President Barack Obama is to blame for Republican gains in Congress and at the state level since he took office. Republicans also won races in Mississippi and Virginia, and GOP officials said those victories show the party has momentum headed into 2016.

We might never know exactly who President Barack Obama had on his mind when he called people "crazies" Monday night.

But he sure had plenty to talk about when traveling in the motorcade with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid from the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas to a high-dollar fundraiser for state Democrats and Reid's hand-picked successor, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

Watch Roll Call's key moments from President Barack Obama's five State of the Union addresses, including criticism of the Supreme Court, hammering Wall Street banks and pushing for immigration and gun reform.